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Dog Knows The Difference. I'm Stumped!

This is my pup Tank's first year hunting. He is 15 months now and has progressed very nicely through training. The problem I have is that he breaks every time a shot is fired by shotgun. I train using a retrieve r trainer with yellow medium load. He does not break when this is fired and is rock solid. Today while hunting he broke even when other guys across the swamp were shooting, tearing his steak out of the ground twice before I put him up. After the hunt I took out the retrieve r trainer and put him back in the blind to see if it was the environment. Fired three shots and he was once again rock solid. I would like to know if anyone else has had this issue and what they have done to remedy it. Thanks in advance. Merry Christmas.
Ed Kern

You have to give your dog a little more credit, retriver trainer fies he gets a bummper, SHOTGUN fires he gets a bird???? Our dogs know the difference between training and hunting. Briget is 100% correct, you need to hunt with a partner, your partner needs to shoot the birds and you need to control your pup. Do it now or you will be fighting an uphill battle.

St. Thomas, the great doctor and theologian, warns about the proper use of animals, lest they appear at the final Judgment against us: and God himself will take vengeance on all who misuse his creatures.

This is my pup Tank's first year hunting. He is 15 months now and has progressed very nicely through training. The problem I have is that he breaks every time a shot is fired by shotgun. I train using a retrieve r trainer with yellow medium load. He does not break when this is fired and is rock solid. Today while hunting he broke even when other guys across the swamp were shooting, tearing his steak out of the ground twice before I put him up. After the hunt I took out the retrieve r trainer and put him back in the blind to see if it was the environment. Fired three shots and he was once again rock solid. I would like to know if anyone else has had this issue and what they have done to remedy it. Thanks in advance. Merry Christmas.
Ed Kern

Using a dummy launcher in training and shooting a shotgun, at a duck, in the duck blind are 100 miles apart.
Back to Obedience 101 first.
Then
Get a longer tie out stake. A heel stick would be my choice for corrections. E-collar is an option but not my first choice to correct breaking.
Put the gun down in the blind until you get a handle on his breaking if you want him solid in the blind.
Just my opinion. Don

Thanks everyone. I hunt with a partner and I haven't picked up the gun all year. He is staked out for the surprise shots by other hunters in the area that Im not prepared for. Recently My e collar broke so that was out of the question. In the yard with distractions he is solid. I have clipped wing pigeons flapping in from of him and he sits until released. I am going to return to yard work again but Ive been down this road and not too sure when he will get the idea of transition.

Thanks everyone. I hunt with a partner and I haven't picked up the gun all year. He is staked out for the surprise shots by other hunters in the area that Im not prepared for. Recently My e collar broke so that was out of the question. In the yard with distractions he is solid. I have clipped wing pigeons flapping in from of him and he sits until released. I am going to return to yard work again but Ive been down this road and not too sure when he will get the idea of transition.

I haven't gotten to hunt my dog much, but what I've noticed is that she is pretty good if the hunting scenario looks anything like training. She has been great at jump shooting, for example.

She needed some training to work effectively out of the permanent blinds they have here in the wetlands. She couldn't really see what was going on (they are pretty much enclosed, all the dog can see is the sky above) and it drove her nuts not to be able to see. "Diversion shots" were the hardest for her! I held on to her with a Martingale lead (like a cloth choke chain but easy to unsnap), and if she tried to break, she got a correction. It didn't take long for her to figure it out the rules. Good luck, your dog will get it if you teach him.

Thanks everyone. I hunt with a partner and I haven't picked up the gun all year. He is staked out for the surprise shots by other hunters in the area that Im not prepared for. Recently My e collar broke so that was out of the question. In the yard with distractions he is solid. I have clipped wing pigeons flapping in from of him and he sits until released. I am going to return to yard work again but Ive been down this road and not too sure when he will get the idea of transition.

Sounds like your on the right track and thinking in the correct direction.
Back to yard work for more "sit" work. Sit is sit no mater what.
Lots of distractions you can't control in the field or the blind. I have a hunch if you keep up good standards in your training it will click in soon.
Have you done shooting live birds in training? Done live bird shooting in the duck blind as training before the season opener? Also, never let him retrieve unless he dose everything correct. It means going out and getting the duck yourself. I also train so they know not every bird shot is their retrieve. Just some ideas to ponder. Don

Sounds like your on the right track and thinking in the correct direction.
Back to yard work for more "sit" work. Sit is sit no mater what.
Lots of distractions you can't control in the field or the blind. I have a hunch if you keep up good standards in your training it will click in soon.
Have you done shooting live birds in training? Done live bird shooting in the duck blind as training before the season opener? Also, never let him retrieve unless he dose everything correct. It means going out and getting the duck yourself. I also train so they know not every bird shot is their retrieve. Just some ideas to ponder. Don

Very tough for me to shoot live birds in training. Suburban New Yorkers are not very understanding of guns, dogs, and everything else I find enjoyable. I hold what I consider to be a high standard for manners. This guy is a bit tough. I have another dog (in avatar) that is very well trained and rock steady under all situation. But your right, A lot more shooting and more distractions.

You need to train sit with a different method so you can easily shoot birds over a young dog with very little effort. I don't have enough time to even start to tell of some methods where this is easily done. One of the methods that will work is the Hiilman method,,,its already on video so I don't have to repeat. Once you have your fog doing that and have introduced gunfire and shooting birds over with your dog at heel in training then the rest is simple. Birds come in,,,you say sit nick ,sit,,stand up and shoot. I may carry a bumper the first time and toss it and shoot when the dog is not paying attention. I routinely hunt customers dogs they can be as young as 7 or 8 months and never have them move a muscle while hunting. I don't use Hillman but I know it will work the same with most dogs if you did your homework correctly.
Pete